B.C. climate activist couple to live in Pakistan if deportation proceeds

VANCOUVER — British Columbia climate activist Zain Haq and his wife Sophia Papp are planning to live together in Pakistan if his threatened deportation proceeds on Saturday, and blame his imminent expulsion on bureaucratic failings by immigration officials.

Haq, a Pakistani citizen who co-founded activist group Save Old Growth as an international student, was granted a temporary resident permit last April, pausing deportation to allow his spousal application for permanent residency to be processed.

But Papp, a Canadian, says Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada then lost the application, and Canada Border Services Agency reactivated the removal order.

She told a news conference in Vancouver that immigration officials offered no “substantive” or “lawful explanation” to the couple when they were told on Thursday that her spousal sponsorship of Haq had been refused.

Papp says that if her husband is deported on Saturday, he could be the first non-violent climate activist to be removed from Canada, which she says is “shameful and inappropriate.”

“We do not have enough time, because of his deportation within 24 hours, to access due process,” she says.

“This is not proper. I am a Canadian citizen. I have the right to live with the spouse of my choosing, whose convictions towards non-violent climate activism have led us here because of mistakes (by) Canada’s government.”

The couple, who have been married for two years, told the news conference on Friday that they would prefer to build their life in Canada, but if deportation goes forward, they will relocate to Pakistan.

“I am put in a horrible situation that no Canadian should have to face of either losing my home of Canada or losing my chosen life partner whose commitments, you know, led me to fall in love with him,” Papp says.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 24, 2025.

The Canadian Press